10 Albums With Creepy Recording Stories
7. Frances The Mute - The Mars Volta
After the reckless anarchy during their stint in At the Drive In, Omar Rodriguez Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala were still going strong in the experimental rock outfit the Mars Volta. While the band released a masterpiece with their debut Deloused in the Comatorium, things took a darker turn once they started to compile material for their next project.
Just before recording began, longtime contributor Jeremy Ward passed away due to a heroin overdose. When going through his possessions, the band came across a diary Ward had found during his time as a repo man. They were stunned to find that much of the diary was from the perspective of a man whose life experiences matched Ward's to a tee.
With Ward's demise still weighing heavy on their minds, the band soldiered on with the project, choosing to make it in memory of their fallen friend. The whole album flows as a concept record of sorts, detailing the life of a man trying to come to grips with his mortality in the drug fueled underground world he lives in. Though the album transcends any one genre, the overarching theme behind the record does seem to have the spirit of Ward present across the board.